Tips for artists · 3 min read

Microphone technique: three habits that fix most vocals

Look up, keep still and step back. A cheat sheet for the booth.

You don’t need to be a trained singer to get a better recording. Most of the problems we fix in a session come down to three habits.

Look up

Almost everyone reads lyrics from a phone. The trouble is that the phone sits at chest height, so your chin drops, your mouth points at the floor and the voice goes past the mic instead of into it. Hold your phone or sheet behind or just under the microphone, so your head stays up and your mouth stays in line. We have a phone holder in the booth if you want your hands free.

Better still, learn the words. You’ll perform them rather than read them, and it shows.

Keep still

Rocking, nodding and swaying changes how far you are from the mic from word to word, so the volume and tone jump around. That makes the vocal hard to mix and it can sound like different people on the same verse.

Moving isn’t banned. If a lean-in is part of how you deliver a line, do it on purpose and we’ll catch it. Just don’t drift without noticing.

Step back

People think they have to eat the microphone. You don’t. The booth is treated, so there’s no room echo to avoid by getting close. Up close you get the proximity effect, a boost in low frequencies that makes the voice boomy, and you make hard sounds like "p" and "b" (called plosives) pop into the capsule.

A good starting distance is about 6 to 10 inches, roughly a hand and a bit. The pop shield in front keeps you from getting too close. If you want more intensity on a line, step in a little. If you’re shouting, step back.

A quick tip for loud lines

If a line gets louder, lean away as you get louder. The mic will thank you and so will the mix.

Try these three in your first ten minutes. They cost nothing and they’ll make everything after sound better.